Hazmat Spill

[genlock]

Summers County -- At midnight, a tractor trailer truck overturned and caught fire on I-64 near Exit 139 at Sandstone, WV, which is in Summers County.

According to 911 dispatchers, fire response was initiated.

They determined that a container containing hazardous material, which turned out to be Uranium Hexafloride, was on the truck.

[genlock]

Summers County -- At midnight, a tractor trailer truck overturned and caught fire on I-64 near Exit 139 at Sandstone, WV, which is in Summers County.

According to 911 dispatchers, fire response was initiated.

They determined that a container containing hazardous material, which turned out to be Uranium Hexafloride, was on the truck.

That from WVNS.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_hexafluoride


Nasty stuff.

[sportsvoice]

Yikes. They worked with that stuff at USEC in Piketon.

[genlock]

More than 700,000 tons are stored at Piketon.

[cgarison]

Are UF6 shipping containers built to the same standards as those for other radioisotopes? If so, then there probably is not much to worry about.

If is is like the containers like those used in the storage yards at Piketon, then the situation is pretty serious.

[Bar Rat]

When UF6 is exposed to moist air, it reacts with the water in the air to produce UO2F2 (uranyl fluoride) and HF (hydrogen fluoride) both of which are highly soluble and toxic.

HF is really nasty, nasty stuff too.

[cgarison]

When UF6 is exposed to moist air, it reacts with the water in the air to produce UO2F2 (uranyl fluoride) and HF (hydrogen fluoride) both of which are highly soluble and toxic.

HF is really nasty, nasty stuff too.

The Sunoco Refinery in South Philly has been reported as keeping the largest amount of this chemical stored on site in the industry and if it were to uncontrollably leak, probably take out a large percentage of the population of South Philly.

[Jet Black]

Breathe Deep, The Gathering Gloom....

[Scott Reppert]

"And in the death, as the last few corpses lay rotting on the slimy thoroughfare..."

Ehh, just felt a little Bowie coming on there...

[cgarison]

Breathe Deep, The Gathering Gloom....

That is the motto of Institute, WV.

[Bar Rat]

When UF6 is exposed to moist air, it reacts with the water in the air to produce UO2F2 (uranyl fluoride) and HF (hydrogen fluoride) both of which are highly soluble and toxic.

HF is really nasty, nasty stuff too.

The Sunoco Refinery in South Philly has been reported as keeping the largest amount of this chemical stored on site in the industry and if it were to uncontrollably leak, probably take out a large percentage of the population of South Philly.

Yikes. If I remember chem class, it's more corrosive (but less known by reputation) than hydrochloric acid... I think as you go down that column of the periodic table, HX gets less destructive. Not that either is a good option, of course, if you're downwind of the cloud.

[Bob Campbell]

So, they planning on storing this stuff at the old Carbide plant by the Kanawha?